Begging clearly didn’t do the trick, so now Ted Lilly has had to take drastic measures. He has agreed to forego the remaining amounts owed to him for his salary for the 2010 MLB schedule in order to convince a team to take him on for the final 2 months of the season. Groveling on his knees to Cubs GM Jim Hendry didn’t do the trick last week, so Lilly hopes that pitching for free for the rest of the season will help a team decide to pull the trigger on the stellar lefty. Lilly has grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of run support that he has received from his teammates in 2010. Last night was a perfect example. Lilly pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 8 Astros hitters. But when he left the game, the score was still 0-0. You see, during that time, the Cubs had just 2 base runners against Bret Myers – a double by Tyler Colvin in the 4th inning and a Marlon Byrd walk in the 5th inning. Yippee!!!

With another wasted outing from Lilly, the lefty is fed up with pitching well and having nothing to show for it. With a 1.14 WHIP and a 3.69 ERA, it is shocking to see that Lilly has a 3-8 record. Lilly has now allowed zero earned runs in 4 of his 18 starts and he has won only 2 of those games?! In 5 of his starts where he has allowed 1 or 2 earned runs, he has a a 1-1 record with 2 no decisions. Unbelievable. I know you just have to chalk things up to bad luck sometimes, but this is a little ridiculous. No wonder the guy is willing to do anything to get traded off of this sham of a team.

Talk about a futile offense at times. Colvin ended up with 2 of the Cubs 4 hits, while fellow rookie Starling Castro had 1 and Byrd had the other. Colvin accounted for the Cubs lone run with a homer off Myers in the 9th inning.

Andrew Cashner’s streak of good luck finally ran out. After helping Lilly get out of a 2 on, 2 out jam in the 6th inning by striking out Chris Johnson, Cashner imploded in the 7th inning. 2’s were wild as he hit 2 batters, walked 2 batters and gave up 2 hits – with the big blow coming courtesy of a Lance Berkman Grand Slam to deep center. The 6 runs allowed sealed the Cubs fate, but I like Manager Lou Pinella’s move to keep Cashner in the game after the Berkman bomb. He showed some toughness once again by getting Chris Johnson to line out for the 3rd out of the inning.

It was another frustrating loss in a long, frustrating season for the Cubs in 2010. Let’s hope Randy Wells can salvage the series finale on Wednesday. It’s not looking good, however, as the Cubs trail the Astros 7-1 in the 8th inning. Ouch…